Labor doesn't count for much

Letters to the editor on op-ed by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez

Labor has lost its validity

I read with interest the Aug. 25 op-ed written by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez “Progressive view; Wrong man, right idea.”

There is only one problem with her pitch; that is Ms. Gonzalez specifically and labor in general, knew of Bob Filner’s issues before he was elected and supported him anyway.

Labor never called for his resignation, they stood by him even when it became apparent that Mr. Filner was a serial predator of women; so much for labor’s promise to lookout for the little person.

Ms. Gonzalez and the unions she carries water for, have shown themselves to be cynical political operators. They only look out for their interest even if it means that the very people they are supposed to be protecting must suffer abuse, assault and harassment.

Mr. Filner may have done the deeds but their hands are just as dirty, they put him in the mayor’s seat knowing before hand what he was like.

I don’t know how any recommendation they have moving forward can have any validity given their past performance.

Bruce Higgins

San Diego

Gonzalez needs an ethics check

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez is really a piece of work. She led the union council to support Bob Filner over Carl DeMaio in last year’s mayoral election. Now we learn that she was part of a union coalition that was retweeting an untruth about DeMaio because she trusted Ben Hueso’s unsubstantiated rumor about DeMaio masturbating. And the guy she supported was a sexual predator while the guy she fought to defeat passed a lie-detector test indicating that he didn’t do it as Hueso alleged.

Lorena needs to start putting her own house in order and give herself an ethics and morality check, especially before she puts herself out in public as supporting anybody for replacement mayor. I know I’ll not be supporting whomever she does.

Bob Gillchrest

San Diego

Gonzalez had a role in Filner debacle

The disingenuous commentary (Aug. 25) by Lorena Gonzalez, “Progressive view: Wrong man, right idea," is an astonishing mishmash of “progressive” pablum. Her vision of a new world order for San Diego, a place to be ruled by her big labor pals, is an attempt to defer attention from her own guilt in creating the civic nightmare called Filner.

She claims that a magical coalition of feel-good causes elected Filner mayor, when in reality it was her as the chief labor boss in San Diego funneling massive piles of money and union campaign workers into the election that provided the margin of victory. She also claims as evidence of this new coalition the fact that subsequent special elections this year produced “progressive” candidates instead of more “conservative” ones.

She neglected to mention that she was one of those election winners, buying an Assembly seat for herself. She defeated a much more qualified and deserving candidate by spending hundreds of thousands of union dollars, most of it from Sacramento labor groups. What was missing from her commentary was the obvious — an apology for her role in inflicting Filner on San Diego.